Waterloo's Columbian Club

The Columbian Club was formed in Waterloo to represent Monroe County in the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The exposition was held in Chicago from May 1, 1893 through October 30, 1893 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. It covered more than 600 acres and featured approximately 200 buildings (many were temporary), canals, and lagoons.

According to an article from the Metro-East Journal from October 31, 1968 the group "decided on a work of art with an agricultural motif as a device to symbolize the county, in which agriculture was - as it still is - the predominant occupation. From materials gathered by the members of the Sisters of St. Joseph created a design of a crescent and star, with a sunflower center, composed of grains, seeds and grasses, all grown in Monroe County. It was an elaborate piece of work. Doves and swallows fashioned of melon seeds, a millet seed grasshopper perching on a stalk of timothy, flowers made of grains, and wax fruits surrounded the centerpiece. On the crescent the words "Monroe County" were spelled out in gilded wheat. The device was mounted against a background of velvet in a five-foot-long glass case."

The group continued to meet monthly; their purpose was to help charitable causes. One was furnishing Thanksgiving Dinner for the County Alms House. The members prepared the food and delivered it via horse and buggy. Later the food was sent to the Alms House and the custodian's wife prepared the meal. The boy scouts and the Tuberculosis Association also benefited from the contributions of the Columbian Club.

The charter members pictured above included many of our ancestors.

Front Row (left to right):
Mrs. James Sennott (Mary Ann Newsham Starkey Sennott)
Mrs. William DeMint (Caroline Durfee DeMint)
Mrs. William Erd
Mrs. Marie Hoener
Mrs. George Ziebold (Wilhelmina Hoffmeister Ziebold)
Mrs. Joseph W. Rickert (Wilhelmina Ziebold Rickert)
Miss Owen (not shown)
Middle Row:
Mrs. Livingston
Mrs. Bode
Mrs. Sam DeMint
Mrs. Thomas Payne
Mrs. Fike (Cora Alice Starkey Fike)
Mrs. Frank Durfee
Miss Elizabeth Rainey
Back Row:
Mrs. Louis Adelsberger
Mrs. Matthew Crowe
Mrs. Alphonse Wetmore
Mrs Paul Brey (Sophia Durfee Brey)
Mrs. Hugh Murphy
Mrs. Fred Jobusch
Mrs. William R. Morrison

I am lucky to have a quilt made by the group in 1901 that was given to me by a descendant of Mrs. George Ziebold.

The quilt is pink and white and the square in the center says Columbian Club 1901. All around the quilt the names of the members are stitched into the quilt. They include Mrs. P.C. Brey (pictured above) Mrs. M.A. Sennott, Mrs. G.W. Ziebold, Mrs. S.C. DeMint, Mrs. F. Jobusch, Mrs. M.T. Crowe, Mrs. M. Talbot, Mrs. H. Murphy, Mrs. L. Adelsburger, Mrs. M. Bode, Mrs. L. Voris, Mrs. M. Payne, Mrs. C. Wetmore, E.A. Rainey, Mrs. Wm. Winkelmann, Mrs. J.M. Drury, Mrs. W.T. DeMint, Mrs. J.W. Rickert, Mrs. Frank Durfee, Mrs. Bainum, and Mrs. G.P. Livingstone.

One thing that stood out when I first got the quilt was the fact that except for Elizabeth Rainey who wasn't married and Mary Ann Sennott, who had been widowed for almost 40 years all of the women sewed their husbands initials into the quilt instead of their own.

The group celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1943, the only charter member that was still living was Minnie Ziebold (Mrs G. W. Ziebold). The club disbanded eight years later in 1951.

Sources
1. Article clipped from the Metro-East Journal. The date Oct. 31, '68 was written on it by Mina Sennott.
2. Picture of the Columbian Club given to the author by Mina Sennott, grandaughter of Mrs. George Ziebold and great-grandaughter of Mrs. Mary Ann Sennott.
3. Quilt made by the Columbian Club in 1901 given to the author by Jane Sennott Coakley, grandaughter of Mrs. George Ziebold and great-grandaughter of Mrs. Mary Ann Sennott.
4. The Newberry Digital Collections for the Classroom - 1893: Chicago and the World's Columbian Exposition website http://dcc.newberry.org/collections/chicago-and-the-worlds-columbian-exposition
5. The World's Columbian Exposition: Idea, Experience, Aftermath website http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/WCE/title.html